A Common Sense Look at Southern Border Reform

I think we can all agree that our immigration policy, assuming we have one, is a complete mess.  I truly cannot think of anyone who would say that what we are doing or not doing at the border is presently working for both the citizens of the United States or the immigrants flocking over to this country.  One of the trips we loved taking with our girls years ago was to New York Harbor. There in the Hudson River stands the Statue of Liberty. The words that appear on the statue are profound and welcoming, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” 

So many immigrants that have come to America, from every continent on our globe, have made a tremendous contribution to these United States.  My wife’s father and mother came over from Mexico to start a new life and family many years ago.  My father-in-law was one of the Godliest, hardworking, and kind men you could ever meet. I speak as a man directly affected by a man and women who yearned to breathe freedom and work hard in a land of tremendous opportunity.  I also am proud of my wife’s family because they appreciated law and order and discipline.  They also respected the laws of our land and desired to hand those beliefs to their children and grandchildren. I am profoundly grateful to have married into such a great immigrant family. 

While serving as the Lead Minister at Kissimmee Christian Church, It was a joy to service five language groups. Preaching the gospel and respecting the many cultural differences that have helped create such diversity within our land was a wonderful experience for our entire church family.

My fear today is that not everyone coming into the United States has the same love and passion for law and order.  Wayne Allyn Root recently wrote an article detailing some of the horrific crimes happening on our southern border. In his article he stated, “Experts estimate the money made on drug trafficking by the cartels at around $500 billion a year.” In 2019 Senator David Purdue said, “At half a trillion dollars that makes the cartel business and the drug traffic just in Mexico alone coming across to the United Stated bigger than Walmart, to put it in perspective.”  Folks regardless of your opinions as to how the State Department and President are dealing with the “dis-order at the border,” we cannot sit idly by and permit this kind of criminal activity to continue without addressing it objectively. 

These drugs are making their way into the hands of your kids and into your community. To say nothing or to just assume that everyone coming over the border wants a better life is just plain ludicrous. Root goes on to write, “What about human trafficking? Nearly 100,000 migrants crossed the U.S. border in just the past month, March to April 2021, Multiply 100,000 migrants’ times [$10,000 which is a common going rate for smuggling humans] That’s $1 billion for human trafficking in a month. Now add in child sex trafficking.”

Victor Davis Hanson spoke of another challenge facing the American taxpayer which has been swept under the rug by the Bidon administration. “Most of the people who enter U.S. will require support subsidies, and collectively they will require increased legal and law-enforcement investments.”  Now, this is not stated to eradicate immigrants from coming to this great nation. But, for the host nation to effectively welcome folks from other nations, appropriate number of schools, hospitals, and other services must be in place, or nobody benefits.  Hanson goes on to write, “At some point, American social services will be so taxed that the system will be rendered dysfunctional- as it already occurring in areas of the American Southwest.”

Believe it or not but even Mexican government officials were baffled at Mr. Bidon’s cavalier attitude towards the drug cartels.  One border patrol agent reported the “illegal immigrations this year has already surpassed that of 2018 and is on track to surpass that of 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined.”

If we are unable to give the best medical treatment to those millions of people coming across the border without being properly documented, it will put an incredible load on our already overloaded hospitals. Samuel Francis wrote way back in 2003 that leprosy was virtually unknown in the continental United States historically- folks flooding across the border introduced some 7,000 cases into this country. The American Hospital Association estimate that at the turn of this century the 24 southern most counties from Texas to California accrued $832 million un unpaid medical care, a quarter of which was directly attributable to illegal immigrants.”  According to a Fox News report in July 2021, COVID cases among migrants in Rio Grande Valley sector surged 900% as border numbers continue to rise” Yet, the present administration is quick to remind the citizens and tax-payers of their responsibility to reduce the spread of COVID. How hypocritical!!

I know there has been a tremendous outcry from folks in relationship to the “unaccompanied minors” who are being held.  Betsy McCaughey said not so fast, “The media shows photos of young migrant children. At least three-quarters of these unaccompanied minors are young men ages 15-17.” 

Again, responsible immigration polices are needed and essential for both the host nation and the folks processing into this nation.  The only way for it to be done fairly and effectively is for it to be done legally.  What is going on down south is absolutely irresponsible.  The Old Testament is replete with many reminders as to how to treat the alien or stranger in the land “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love hi as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

The United States has opened its doors to immigrant and stranger like no other country on the face of the earth. But the foreigner has a responsibility to obey the laws of the land and to follow the procedures before entering. If not, it completely discredits those immigrants who did follow the law and did enter legally.  Everyone coming over, regardless of where, must be vetted.  Every nation on the planet does this. How is it less humanitarian for the United States to do so?

David Limbaugh wrote, “No self-respecting nation can long survive without protecting its borders. This is about raw power and placing their party’s interests above the national interest.”  We need immigrants to assimilate into the American workplace and into our educational system and even into our political arenas. They bring so much talent and vision to the nation we all love.  But a nation without laws and structure is a nation on the verge of collapse.